Toddler waking up to play during the night

Hi!

My little boy is 16 months old and has recently taken to waking up in the middle of the night to PLAY. It usually starts around 4am and goes on (on and off) until 630am. A couple of times, I have gone through to him, laid him back down and simply said, "Bedtime", but he's up and playing again within 5 minutes. He isn't the slightest bit upset (even when I leave the room). He's full of glee and wide awake - just chattering away, pointing at things, playing with his stuffed toy.

He has always been in a great bedtime routine and slept through from 7pm-7am from a very early age. He settles himself to sleep without the need for cuddles, milk, etc. and we aren't in the habit of going through to him often during the night. He still has an afternoon nap. It was 2 hours but I have but it down to 1.5hrs and this doesn't seem to have made a difference.

There have been a few big changes at home recently. My husband is away with work for 6 weeks and we recently started him in nursery for 2 mornings a week to give me a break as I'm 33 weeks pregnant. On top of all of that, he also has his first molars coming in. We had a fortnight or so of regular nightwaking (upset and crying) when my husband first left which I think was anxiety and teething related but we seem to have gotten through that.

I'm not sure how to deal with the playing at night though - do I ignore it or go through to him? It's keeping both of us awake! I've heard that it might be related to the fact that he has recently started talking and that he is learning so many new words on a daily basis now that he wakes up and feel keen to practice his new skills.

Any advice/help/stories of similar experiences would be appreciated! I'd like to nip this in the bud before the new baby arrives!

My little boy is 2 and he does this every so often he wakes full of beans last week he woke at 1am until 7am wanting to play. He goes to bed at 7pm, only has an hours sleep during the day, is very good at going to bed no problems. He eats healthy, attends nursery two days a week. We keep him busy in the day, trips to the park, days out, play centres etc. I just let him play in his bed room he has a safety gate on his door and we just leave him to play.

I don't know why they does this but I work with children on this age and a lot of the parents have mentioned their children are the same, I'm guessing it is a phase that all children go through plus at around 15 months is when they start to dream a lot more as they are taking in so much so possibly could have something to do with it. Hope all goes well.